Possessive Mountain Man (Seduction Summit Trails #2)

Chapter 1

1

EVE

I needed a new group of friends.

My three former sorority sisters, Sammie, Catherine, and Amber, stood huddled together, arms crossed in front of them like it was cold out here.

Catherine and Sammie were actually shaking, but Amber was fiercely stoic, despite the fact that she’d nearly been in tears seconds earlier. They watched as the super-hot rappelling guide turned to me, contraption in hand.

“Ready to suit up?” the guide, who’d introduced himself as Hayden, asked.

Holy hell, was this guy going to actually touch me? I tingled at the thought. But I also felt a little thrill of victory against my friends, who’d turned this adventure into a nightmare.

Things had been going south with our friend group for a while. We’d met during pledge week freshman year and roomed together in the sorority house when we were sophomores. Junior year, we had to get our own apartment, and we’d ended up dropping out of the sorority. We’d gotten the friend group we needed, plus the dues and pageantry had gotten old.

Now, as a graduation celebration for me and Catherine—Amber and Sammie still had at least a year left of school—we’d headed to the mountains. I’d suggested we go for a hike on the first full day here, but Sammie insisted on rappelling.

They all freaked out when they saw what was involved, though. The group ahead of us had been much braver. But hell, we’d come all the way here and waited for a good twenty minutes. One of us was going down, and it looked like it would be me.

“Sure,” I said.

Hayden handed over the contraption, then walked me through putting it on—no touching involved. I was disappointed. Just being close to this guy gave me the tingles all over. It wasn’t only that he was handsome. I’d seen plenty of handsome guys in my time. When he looked at me, I felt beautiful for the first time in my life. I felt like maybe, just maybe, my fear that I’d never be attracted to a guy enough to sleep with him was unfounded.

This guy gave me hope.

“Okay,” he said. “You’re going to spread your legs wide.”

“Spread ’em,” Amber called out.

I glared at her, but she wouldn’t see that behind my sunglasses. We needed to behave like adults here. Mostly, though, they needed to not embarrass me in front of this hunky rappelling guide.

“You’re going to step your way down,” he said. “That’s it. I’ll be right next to you every step of the way.”

He’d be next to me every step of the way. That was the most comforting thing I’d ever heard. He was just talking about going down this mountain, of course. But wouldn’t it be nice to have a big, muscle-bound guy with me through everything scary I did in life? First job. Childbirth. Even walking into a room full of people I didn’t know had me nearly breaking out in hives, yet I wasn’t afraid to go down the side of a mountain. Go figure.

“Don’t forget your helmet!” Sammie called out.

“Oh yeah,” he said. “Sorry.”

He headed over to his gear and grabbed a helmet for me. He already wore one. It didn’t seem like him to forget something so important. I wondered if he found me so beautiful, he’d gotten flustered. Highly doubtful, but a girl could dream, right?

“Ready?” he asked once my helmet was in place.

I nodded and grabbed the rope. Okay, maybe I wasn’t as prepared as I thought. A few steps back and I realized just how steep the drop-off was. This rope was the only thing keeping me from toppling to my death.

I wasn’t ready to die. I had stuff I still wanted to do. Heck, I’d just now felt my first intense physical attraction to someone. I couldn’t die without knowing what it was like to kiss a guy I really, really liked.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and gripped the rope a little tighter. I could do this. I could do this. I could do this.

“You’re doing great,” the guide said. “Just keep going.”

His voice soothed me. I wanted to tell him to keep talking, but I couldn’t speak. It was like my fear had a grip on my vocal cords and wouldn’t let go.

I took slow, deep breaths and tried to tell myself this guy knew what he was doing. He would have tested all the equipment. He was a pro. The woman at the ski lodge where we were staying said as much.

“So, is this your full-time job?” I asked.

Making conversation helped me when I was stressed. I was aware I often chattered to an annoying degree when I was doing something scary, like getting a Pap smear or gearing up to take a major exam in school.

“I wish.” He laughed. “I’m a logger by day.”

It was daytime right now, but since it was a Saturday, I assumed he meant weekdays. As someone who hadn’t even started my career yet, I was fascinated by the careers other people had chosen.

“This can’t be a full-time gig?” I asked.

He didn’t answer right away. It occurred to me that what we were doing was pretty intense. Maybe I shouldn’t be distracting him. But really, right now, the goal was to distract myself so I didn’t freak the fuck out.

“I suppose if someone wanted to travel around, it could be,” Hayden said.

“Or maybe combine it with other things. A zipline would work great here.”

Please tell me there wasn’t already one of those. That would be the next thing Sammie suggested we do only to back out at the last minute. To her credit, she had gone down the slides they put on the ski slopes, so she was up for some types of adventure.

It was weird staying at a ski lodge in June, but we’d graduated a month ago, and it was the first time all four of us could work out our schedules to take a trip together. One by one, we ruled out cities, beaches, and cruise ships until we’d settled on a long weekend in the mountains of North Carolina.

“I thought about it,” he said. “But the logging work I’m doing here pays well, and I get to work alongside other vets.”

My eyebrows instantly shot up. “You’re a veteran?”

That didn’t surprise me. He looked like someone who would be in the military. Not just in the military, but special forces. Something straight out of one of those action movies I’d watched growing up.

“Most of the guys around here are,” he said. “This town has given us that sense of community we had on base. Many of the vets are married with kids now, but that wasn’t the case when they came here.”

“They met women here?” I asked.

They must be tourists. Aside from a few people working at the lodge, I hadn’t seen that many women. At least not women who would be young enough to marry one of these lumberjacks.

“So you’re the last single guy in town?”

That was forward. Who knew I had that side of me? I usually waited around for a man to show interest in me first.

But I realized now it was because of my interest in him. When something didn’t matter, you couldn’t really be bothered to work for it. This guy was definitely worth some hard work.

“Seems like it sometimes,” he said. “My buddy Axel moved here a year ago and brought along Ryder, another friend of ours. They both found women right away, and now they’re married. But another buddy of mine is joining us. Okay, stay right there. I’ll get you all unhooked.”

I didn’t even realize what he was talking about at first. But then my feet hit the ground. I was already at the bottom. How had that happened? And why wasn’t I more excited to have the earth beneath my feet?

I didn’t want this to end. I wanted to continue hanging out with him, even if that meant being suspended hundreds of feet above the ground. Yes, I liked talking to him so much, I was willing to risk my life to do so.

“Where are you and your friends staying?” he asked as he came toward me.

He was close. So close. His hand even brushed mine as he moved to do something with the rope. Something I didn’t understand.

Suddenly, his movements stilled, and I wondered if that was because he felt the same thing I had. Electricity shooting from my fingers through my body.

Oh God, this was it. This was the “sparks” people had talked about. That instant connection that you knew was going to lead somewhere. Maybe just sex. Maybe forever. There was no way to know for sure until you either had a ring on your finger or your heart smashed into bits.

The problem was, the attraction had found me here in this town that was a five-hour flight from where I’d lived all my life. The area where all my friends were. The area where I went to elementary, junior, middle, and high school, and then college. The area where I planned to work once I sent out my resumes.

No, this couldn’t be anything, even if I wanted it to be.

“We’re staying at the ski lodge,” I said. “Just down the mountain from here.”

One side of his mouth twitched a little, and I knew he was battling a smile. Of course, he knew where the ski lodge was. It was the main attraction in this town, even with everything else that had been built around it in recent years. People came to Seduction Summit to ski in the winter—or, like us, to do weird girls’ weekends where we got lost on trails and drank every night.

“I hang out there at the bar,” he said. “Maybe I’ll see you around.”

“I hope so. We’ll be there tonight. Probably around six for dinner.”

I didn’t know much, but I did know my friends wanted to have dinner in the lodge restaurant. They were into the idea of drinking and stumbling back to their rooms—no designated driver required.

“Great,” Hayden said. “You’re unhooked. You survived.”

Normally, I’d be riding on the high of my accomplishment. But all I could think about was this hot-as-hell guy.

Yeah, I had to see him again. Whatever it took.